“I was battling stuff within myself,” he says. “Everything was taken away. When this happens, you find out how much you really have to dig to get back.”

Waiters certainly had to dig deep. He will have missed almost a year of basketball by the time he returns to action. Fans and writers alike have begun to question whether he’ll ever return, and why the organization brought him back if his ankle wasn’t fully healthy. Meanwhile, Waiters admits the front office itself at times grew restless. There’s a reason why [Pat] Riley was running Waiters so hard—he wants to see him back on the court.

“Both sides are mad and frustrated,” Waiters says when asked about tension with the team. “But we both want the same thing.”

When Waiters is actually back, what does that mean for Miami?

“I know I’m better than a lot of these guys in the motherf—ing league,” Waiters says when questioned about what he can bring to the Heat. “I only gave y’all a taste. I know I can do more.”